PHILADELPHIA — Whatever success the Flyers have had this season, whatever magic they are starting to produce on their November recovery run, it can be traced to Steve Mason.

The young goalie has taken his promising spring finish to last season and transformed it into an eye-opening start to this one. As usual, Mason was more than impressive Tuesday night, keeping his team on an even keel with a couple of spectacular saves along the way to a 5-2 Flyers victory over the Ottawa Senators.

But the turnaround in this game would come when Mason (32 saves) was down, out of his crease and vulnerable ... leaving it to defenseman Nick Grossmann to steal the saves show.

Grossmann skillfully (and with his head turned) got a foot in the way of what looked like a sure go-ahead goal by the Senators’ Kyle Turris midway through the third period. Disbelieving Senators and officials alike called for a replay to the save, and agreed that Grossmann indeed had provided a highlight moment — sort of.

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“I didn’t think it went in at first, so I was more pissed off at myself for not scoring on it,” Turris said. “Everyone kept playing, so I don’t think it affected the team until they reviewed it and realized it might be in, it might not.”

“I was pretty sure it went out ... but you never know,” Grossmann countered. “It hit my left skate, went up to the knee ... to the right leg and I just (kicked) the right leg out. It was more a reflex than anything.”

Two minutes after the replay, the juiced Flyers rendered all discussion on the matter moot. They took the momentum and scored goals 23 seconds apart by Kimmo Timonen and Wayne Simmonds, promptly extending their stretch of games without a regulation loss to five.

In a way, it was a show of gratitude to the goalie who, along with the able assistance of backup Ray Emery, is primarily responsible for this team being in a position to make recovery possible.

“The way he’s played has been unbelievable,” Timonen said of Mason. “Not just this game but the whole year. When a goalie’s playing like that he’s giving you a chance to win the game every night.”

It was also the second Flyers win in a week over Ottawa, which sat down at home for a 5-0 loss that got the Flyers (8-10-2) started on this desperately needed run of success.

Picking up cues from that game, they put pressure on the Senators and their “Hoop Dreams” goalie Robin Lehner, all 6-foot-5 and 225 pounds of him, early on. They also stepped up their recently slipping penalty kill, thwarting two early Senators power plays.

It all paid off late in the period, when a nice Jake Voracek look across the ice to an open Claude Giroux resulted in Giroux’s second goal of the season and a 1-0 Flyers lead.

Sean Couturier, who earlier had flubbed a close shot at an open net, then doubled the edge with a 90-degree shot that went off Lehner’s right leg and in 5:18 into the second period. That goal was only 25 games in the making, dating to last April.

“It feels good,” Courturier said. “I feel 20 pounds lighter.”

At the 8:13 mark, however, Ottawa’s Clarke MacArthur was given too much room by defenseman Luke Schenn, who also screened MacArthur’s shot that halved the lead. MacArthur was then in position to tie the game in the period’s final minute. Bobby Ryan, the local boy from Cherry Hill, N.J., spun and set up MacArthur with a one-handed pass. But before MacArthur could bury the puck, Mason was on it, stretching on pure instinct and making what probably was his best save of what has been an impressive season for him.

That kept the Flyers in front ... until a Zac Rinaldo penalty helped Ottawa pull even. It took the Senators barely more than a blink of an eye off a faceoff to score a power play goal, Turris cashing in on a rebound to tie the game at 2.

But not long afterward, Turris was in a position for the go-ahead goal when another brilliant save kept the Senators down. This one was made by Grossmann, who skillfully got the ankle in the way when Turris least expected it.

That done, Timonen darted into the zone, then veered across the slot and put a backhander through Lehner to make a 3-2 Flyers lead with 9:30 left to play.

“That’s kind of my game. Or, it has been,” Timonen said after scoring his first goal of the season. He’s just one of a team of players that seem to be finally finding their games.

“I knew we had a good team,” Timonen added, “but until we started moving the puck around the net and playing solid team defense, it was going to be hard. But that’s the way we’ve been playing the last couple of weeks and it’s been really promising.”

For added measure, Simmonds found a loose puck in the slot and rifled it home for an insurance goal just 23 seconds after Timonen’s game-winner. The Senators pulled a late power play and pulled their big goalie at the same time for a two-man edge in the final minute. But that didn’t stop Adam Hall from adding an empty net goal.

That came after Mason was called upon to stop a penalty shot attempt by Turris. Guess how that turned out.

“He’s been bailing us out a lot,” Grossmann said of Mason (32 saves). “I’ve said it before, he’s been our best player the whole year. It’s good to have a guy like that. You know he’s there if stuff breaks down. You try to do whatever you can to help him. That’s how it has to work. We need him to be our best player.”